by Janice Davis, TCW
AS TCW reported on Monday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is discouraging its young people from applying to British universities – not because it fears the students will be targets of ‘Islamophobia’ but because of the risk that they will be radicalised into Islamist extremists. Like other moderate Arab nations, they regard British universities as ‘Hezbollah training camps with matriculation fees’.
So many of the authorities in the UK – politicians, civil servants, journalists, academics – behave like what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls ‘intellectuals yet idiots’. These are individuals who possess high levels of education and theoretical knowledge but lack practical wisdom and real-world accountability, and are typical of the ideology-driven ‘leaders’ forcing the UK down this counter-cultural route.
The official AI overview would have us believe that Muslim culture contributes significantly to the economy, food, fashion, arts and academia, alongside the development of unique British Muslim identity and community institutions, such as Centres for Islamic Studies, the halal food sector, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, and even public figures such as London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf.
This dynamic process has introduced a new confident British Islam, blending faith with British culture in the UK’s diverse social fabric. Really?
What about all those unacceptable and usually illegal aspects of cultural practice such as forced marriages, FGM, honour killings and the segregation and veiling of women and girls?Our trusty AI overview assures us these practices do not represent mainstream British Muslims.
But, as Reform MP Sarah Pochin has stated, although sharia law is not part of the UK legal system it is estimated that there are up to 85 so-called sharia courts operating in Britain today.